>> welcome to the al jazeera news hour from doha. coming up: >> scathing reports, the u.n. calls for international judges and lawyers to prosecute those accused of sri lanka war crimes. >> finding a new route into the e.u. hundreds reach croatia a day after hungary seals its border.

june 000s marsh in support of malaysia's foreign minister. >> this is a unique hurricane simulator. we'll show you how it hopes to save lives. >> we start in sri lanka where the government promises to deliver justice after a damning u.n. report into its 26 year conflict with tamil tiger rebels. they are accused of using them in crimes against humanity. 40,000 were killed in the final army offensive to crush the rebel movement. the report details horrific abuses on both sides, including torture, executions, sexual assault and the recruitment of child soldiers by rebels. it calls on the government to remove any military or security personnel thought to be involved

in such crimes. it also urges a special court be set up with international judges and lawyers to prosecute those accused of such crimes. >> other correspondent sent us this from the capitol, colome bow. >> the report talks about the need to set up a special hype before i had court that will look at these allegations of violations of human rights and humanitarian law. generally if you look at it on the whole, it's mainly the sri lankan security force that is come in for a lot of flak in terms of evidence and allegations that many of these things were perpetrated by them. however, the ltde is mentioned as well in terms of their sort of place and commission of war crimes, particularly in the recruitment of children. in terms of attacks on civilian targets, basically the report does talk about the government

firing on no fire zones. it does acknowledge that the ltt very often set up bases very close to civilian sort of populations and civilian targets, didn't allow civilians to leave the areas but said that does not absolve the government of responsibility in terms of ensuring the safety of civilians. the next face of this is to work out this hype before i had court and very much part of the what the government and u.n. will be working together in the future. >> the u.n. human rights spokesman said he hopes there will be backing for a proposal. >> gravity and scales of the crimes which we have given greater clarity to in the report makes it evident that these are no ordinary crimes, and must be dealt with in a rather special way, and so we hope that there

will be deep soul searching throughout the country, which will then support the notion that should be a hybrid special court to preside over the judicial action over these crimes. we hope that they will understand that such is the mistrust, the deep mistrust on the part of the victims, especially toward any domestic mechanism, given the past record of failings in this regard that we have reflected in our report that only a hype before i had mechanism or something with the like with a very considerable international involvement will be sufficient in meeting the requirements of justice in this regard. >> a border crack down in hungary is requiring new routes

for asylum seekers. many have traveled by bus from serbia. croatia said it is ready to receive or direct the refugees to where they eventually want to go and demining experts have been sent to the border area where migrants began crossing on foot. they are trying to protect the refugees from mine fields left from the balkan wars of the 1990's. meanwhile, hungary is preparing to build a razor wire fence along its border with romania after imposing strict new controlsology its southern frontier with serbia. it's become a criminal offense to enter hungary without permission. out tree i can't is imposing new restriction at its borders. monday, the last day before hungary sealed off its serbian border, a record 15,007 hundred people arrived in eastern austria. >> we can go live now to serbia

at the border with hungary. what's the situation? by and large, has the message got through to refugees to hungary is closed for business? >> it has. we are actually on a stretch of motorway that become a no man's land between the borders of serbia which is ahead of me, hungary behind me where the refugees you see behind us are crowded around that bus. there are hundreds of refugees here today, all extremely worried, because they hoped that they would still be allowed into hungary. that has not happened. earlier in the day, we were up along that fence. there were young men chanting let us in, let us in. there were mothers with babies, some calling over to the hungarian officials on the other side of the fence saying please let us in, our children need

medical care, they are sick. they need to get in had hungary to reach austria. it is a very sad situation. there are many tents, there are people sleeping along the motor way. it is sunny and hot today. even though there are volunteers here, medics, it still is a desperate situation. they don't understand why the hungarien government have taken this stance. now they are going to try to go around hungary. several of looking into alternate routes, perhaps croatia. one man said he was looking into trying to pay a smuggler to get him into croatia. he wasn't sure if that would be safe for him. a real sense of desperation, a real sense of feeling unwelcome. a lot of parents with their children desperately want to get to a country where they can

settle done, take care of their children for the years to come. >> the hungarien authorities in defense of their tough line have said they want to impose order. they said there's an official processing point through which refugees can go. is that happening, as far as you're aware? >> as far as what we are searing, that is not happening. we are told that the hungarian authorities said they will take applications for amnesty, but also told that the refugees expect those applications will be denied. one of the reasons is because here they are now in serbia, considered a safe country, so really, these people feel stuck. they feel they can't move on in this desperate journey they are on. many are separated from loved ones already in austria or germany trying to get to them. they say it's a hard line that

the hungarian government has taken toward them. they are continuing to call on the e.u. and international community members to help them, but they also are very much aware that the e.u. has not been able to come up with a coordinated policy when it comes to dealing with this in flux. >> thank you for that. >> let's go to the serbian town of cid on the border with croatia to our correspondent there. what are the croatian authorities saying about the expected influx of refugees. many people have already started to move towards croatia, some even have already gotten through. >> nobody knows exact numbers,

how many people with him cross serbia until croatia. until now, 300 people crossed this line, this border in serbia. the buses came to the town at 5:00 a.m., three or four buses. many expect buses from the border between serbia and hungary to come here, so that people can walk to croatia and further to the western, to the european union. this is that alternative refugee route that leads to germany that everybody who comes here saying that our main path is towards germany. in last hour, some hundred people came here, but they didn't come by buses. they came with tax sees grom belgrade and pay the 170 euros

just to come to this place. local volunteers direct them to the alternative border crossings, and but from here, we can see some police vehicles are positioned 500 meters from each other on that borderline and they welcomed those refugees. they put them in buses or other vehicles, and lead them to the camps in croatia, but croatian officials told us that they will have official press conference later today to say their estimations about how many refugees will cross croatia. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is due to visit russia next week, holding talks with president putin on the expanding russian military

presence in syria. peter sharp is live for us now in moscow. what sort of tone do we expect this meeting to take then with mr. netanyahu and mr. putin? >> well, russia has dramatically upped its coverage and involvement in the syrian crise over the last 6 six weeks. there is a growing concerns to israelis. the amount of weapons now, the tap has been turned on and amount of weapons substantially increased. these are very highly sophisticated weapons, and the fear in germ is of course that these weapons may somehow get into the hands of what the israeli's call terror groups. they are very concerned about the s.a.22. it is operated by russian troops, but israel is very

concerned that it could end up in the hands of assad ally hezbollah. putin will continue to support president assad. >> of course they both claim to have a common enemy, don't they, isil, and that is the justification that russia has used for the extension of its military presence in syria. >> it's really at the heart of a diplomatic plan that is being pushed be very hard by putin and his foreign minister sergey lavrov. putin wants the west to see

assad's army against the common enemy, isil. putin will tell netanyahu that he has had personal assurances from the syrian president that he will engage with what he calls healthy opposition groups and bring them into some sort of transitional government and would bring about the opening of pretty swift parliamentary elections, but there is another agenda to putin in all this, because he sees that the keeping the west guessing on what their plan is in syria is a way of distracting international attention from ukraine, and that's very much part of putin's game plan. he will be going to new york at the end of the month to push for a meeting with obama, actually and to push this diplomatic venture through, if he can. >> we've got a lot more to come

here, including the new british opposition leader taking on the prime minister with input from the public. we'll be live from london. >> i don't think anybody will be scared. we'll run things properly. >> the divisive u.s. businessman going strong to become the republican nominee for president. >> in sport, the applicants to host the 2024 summer olympics. >> back home in israel, the prime minister is about to talk there. israeli security forces around the al aqsa mosque in jerusalem, the site considered holy by

muslims, jews and christians. for muslims, it's their third holiest site. it contains al aqsa mosque and dome of the rock. jews call it the temple mount because of the temple that is stood in biblical times. it's the holiest site in judaism. june for the first time in days, calm at islam's third holiest site. the jewish new year is over. visits by far right jewish groups during the holiday led to confrontations around al aqsa mosque. for the past three days, israeli security forces have been fighting with palestinians inside the mosque. senior palestinian officials warned the violence has the potential to escalate. >> it's extremely dangerous, because the extremists on the

israeli side have been supported by the israeli occupying authority and their security forces, including some ministers and trying to change, you know the situation should the mosque. >> jews are allowed to visit the area around the mosque, but not allowed to pray within its walls. they call this the temple mount and consider i had the holiest site in judaism. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said israel was committed to maintaining the status quo, meaning jews will not be allowed to pray inside the compound. netanyahu made it clear palestinians would not be prevented from stopping jews from visiting. we will use necessary measures including those who throw stones and fireworks in order to attack civilians and police, met with sharp punitive and preventative responses.

tensions have spread to jerusalem's old city. hundreds of extra security forces have been sent to the area to try to restore calm. palestinians say among the jewish groups who enter the compound of settlers and far right activists who provoke them. >> i'm here staying on the ground to make sure they don't violate the sanctity of the compound. >> jordan has a piece treaty with israel and is one of its closest allies in the region. >> there maybe calm at the moment, but al aqsa is part of the celebrations.

al jazeera in occupied east jerusalem. >> in the u.k., the newly elected labour party leader has had his first verbal jaw with prime minister david cameron. the leftwing corbin was the unexpected winner of a contest. in a break with tradition, he asked the prime minister questions that had been emailed to him by the public. >> i've taken part in many events around the country and had conversations with many people about what they thought about this place, our parliament, our democracy and our conduct within this place, and many told me that they thought prime minister's question time was too theatrical, that parliament was out of touch and too theatrical and wanted things done differently, but above all, wanted their voice heard in parliament. if we are able to change prime minister's questions and make it

a more genuine exercise in asking and answering questions, no one would be more delighted than me. i felt last week where we discussed a substantial issue with substantial questions and proper answers was good for our house, good for our democracy, so i welcome it. >> let's speak to our correspondent in london. it's worth explaining that prime minister question time is an important event in the politics of the u.k., it happens every week. it's fairly combative, can be positively rude, but it's a major indicator as to how well the opposition leader is doing. how well did jeremy corbin do? >> it's early days, isn't it? many people have perhaps interpreted corbin's debut as leader of the labour party as fouling short. perhaps the gloves weren't off enough. perhaps he didn't initiate

enough blows against david cameron. it is early days. we can't imagine that he won't get stuck in perhaps a little more. the fact that he's used his political debut to challenge this long-held, political convention is significant and is very bold indeed. as you mentioned there, it has existed largely unchanged since the time of margaret thatcherrer, nothing short of a political bear pit where reputations are very much made and broken, but as jeremy corbin said, he feels that this weekly session is way too theatrical. there is little by way of a meaningful discussion that takes place during this half hour debate. he's called for reforms in two key areas. firstly, he wants more questions asked by members of his party. there are 232 members of the labour party. jeremy corbin as leader of the

opposition is allowed to ask six. corbin wants to share the wealth, he wants a talent to be shown across the board from other members of the labour party. he wants parliament to be a little bit more accountable to the people, which is why he sent out an email ahead of this week's p.m.q.'s to find out exactly what people think. he mentioned several questions, one from somebody called marie about the housing crise, another from steven about rent cuts. another question from paul about cuts to tax credits. all of this is part of what corbin hopes will be a parliament that is much more direct in the way in which democracy takes place. >> thank you very much. >> libya's international government recalled its peace

teams, complaining about amendments made to a draft agreement on a unity government. the u.n. is trying to broker a deal between this government and rival administration that controls the capital, tripoli. >> yemen said prime minister and seven officials returned to the southern city of aden. a government spokesman has said he will stay in aden. he's been in saudi arabia since march, along with president adou rabbo mansour hadi. they left after houthi rebels took over the capital sanna. that relocation comes days before u.n. brokered peace talks are due to begin. >> saudi arabia has banned the owners of a crane which collapsed in the muslim holy city of mecca from working on new building projects. members of the bin laden group have also been banned from traveling while an investigation takes place. more than 100 were killed when the crane collapsed on to a section of the grand mosque on

friday. >> the families of eight mexican tourists killed in egypt on sunday have arrived in cairo. they were accompanied by the mexican foreign minister. she's demanding to know why egyptian security forces shot at a group of tourists, most of whom were mexican. egypt said it was an accident. we have this report. >> with cameras pointed at them, families of the victims leave a government building in guadalajara. they have little in the way of a thorough explanation about what happened in egypt on sunday. others have made the long trip to cairo with mexico's foreign minister. >> i will meet with the president of egypt later today and we will see from there what the next step in terms of

taking -- >> they insist the attack in the desert was human error, a car chase gone wrong. that security officers in helicopters and on the ground seasonal bombed and shot at the tourists' convoy, which was in a restricted zone. there were 22 people in that convoy, most were mexicans, some egyptian. the wounded are being treated at this hospital. egypt says the facts of the case remain confusing, but it will conduct a thorough and impartial investigation. al jazeera. >> to pakistan now, where people living in remote mountain villages say they've received almost no help since a flood destroyed their homes six weeks ago. residents of the district in the north say melting glaciers are

an existential threat. >> climate change is transforming the landscape. glaciers are melting, and in summer, the floods come. it can be rough traveling around here, especially when roads have been swept away. it's a two hour drive to reach the village, but you wouldn't know it was here. it's buried under layers of rock. all 96 houses have been smashed to pieces by a flood that drove huge boulders and stones down the valley. >> there is a very big glacier in the mountains, flood and rocks came from there. no one from the government has come to help us. no aid, not even a tent. >> people survive here raising cattle and growing apples and calendar nuts. all the farms have been

destroyed. the only shelter is a few tents in the shade of a tree. his house is half buried in the rock. >> it was a heavy flood. we lost everything. you can see my house, it's under the mud and rocks. you can see its roof. >> we asked the government to resettle us in a safe place. if we rebuild our houses, the flood will destroy them again. this place is newt suitable to live anymore. >> autumn is coming and with it cold nights. in a few months, this whole area will be covered in snow. families won't be able to survive it in tents. >> all this area was our green village with trees of calendar nuts and apples, but this is an area of glaciers and every year there will be a flood. >> families have been here for generation. they see the glaciers retreating

and feel the summer's getting hotter and they don't believe there is a future for their children in this valley. nicole johnston, al jazeera, islamabad. >> richard's here and we've got severe flooding in parts of vietnam, richard. >> yes, we have, this is a result es tropical storm moved in from the china sea. it's a nasty feature. i'll talk about all the bad effects of rain, but some parts, this region need the rain very much. thailand, central northern parts are in drought, so the rain welcome. if you look at that satellite imagery, you can see it covering much of vietnam through parts of cambodia and on into thailand. we have had very significant amounts of rainfall over the last day or so. further south, we have rains reported, and then to put it into some sort of context, 318 millimeters in eight days.

that's quite a bit of rain coming down in just three days. june towards the south, ho chi minh city and in the surrounding provinces, looks like that rain is going to be an ongoing thing over the coming days. you can seep the circulation still affecting much of in dough china. you're going to see heavy rain affecting vietnam all the way into cambodia and i think for parts of thailand, we'll see further heavy rain continuing over the following three days. >> still to come in this al jazeera news hour: >> taking a deep dive into ocean data, a study finds the the word's marine population has declined by nearly 50%. >> i'm worried about what happens to me if i am not allowed to take. >> hundreds of moor nigerians

say they have no choice but to define a ban on begging. >> tony parker keeps stealing the show at the european basketball championship. we'll have the details in sport.

>> let's have a look at the top stories here on al jazeera. in hungary, refugees try to go across the fence. they are enacting tough new

border laws, barring asylum seekers from entering the country for a year if they break the law. >> israeli prime benjamin netanyahu goes to russia, holding talks with president putin on the expanding russian military presence in syria. >> the u.n. is accusing sri lankan government forces and tamil tiger rebels of committing war crimes. a report into the 26 year conflict details allegation of torture, executions, sexual assault and the recruitment of child soldiers. >> let's look back now at how that civil war unfolded. after independence from britain, sri lanka governments favored the majority. the tamil minority complained of discrimination for jobs and economic opportunities, leading to the formation of the

liberation tigers of tamil also known as the tamil tigers in 1976. a pitch vatical moment in 1983 when a tiger tamil ambush killed hundreds of soldiers. hundreds of tamils were killed in reprisal attacks. a decade later, the president was assassinated in a rebel bomb attack. a ceasefire was signed in 2002, but that didn't end the fighting. in 2008, the then president went for all out military offensive, crushing the rebels within the space of a year. >> we can now talk to a spokesman for the british tamil's forum. we've just outlined haven't we the length and breadth have this. is it a start of a

reconciliation process? as we all know, you can't have peace without justice. >> correct. the reconciliation process can only take place once the accountability issue is resolved. we are disappointed because the tamils have been calling for an international, independent investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in sri lanka. what really happened was genocide. this report that has come out is based on limited evidence because the sri lankan government did not allow the u.n. investigators into the country. we are encouraged that the international community now recognizes that most horrendous crimes took place in sri lanka. >> indeed, too, and that of course is being disputed, the numbers of being disputed left, right and center here, but the important thing about this is that this report does attribute blame to both sides.

it also says that tamil tiger rebels also commit crimes against humanity. >> crimes were committed by both sides. the international community that now recognize that had torture, rape of women, rape of sri lankan tamil women by soldiers and executions all took place there. the high commissioner has recommended foreign judges, foreign investigators and foreign lawyers. that is a good thing, but what has to happen is to include in the resolution and make sure that they are implemented. now it is good that there are going to be foreign judges, foreign lawyers and foreign investigators, but if there is going to be any sri lankan investigation, that has to be discouraged for a number of reasons. the current president was the

defense minister, acting defense minister during the last phases of the war when a number of civilians were killed. a number of people surrendered, they have been killed. >> sorry, sorry. >> refusing to give -- >> can i get to you clarify that point, because it's important. the president has come to power only recently within the last few months and promised a complete review of the situation with regard to the com mill minority and he's vowed to find those accountable for crimes committed during the final months of the conflict, so you're saying that you don't believe that that can be a credible process that he is starting within sri lanka. >> exactly. there are a number of other issues, as well. you know, in sri lanka, the judicial process does not deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity and disappearances. for that to change, it has to go

through parliament. two parties in sri lanka are opposed to that. they said they will protect the war heroes at any cost, they are the soldiers who killed civilians. there is a problem of witness protection. we have a number of witnesses in this country, in the united kingdom, a number of men and women raped by sri lanka soldiers, men and women tortured by sri lanka soldiers reluctant to give evidence because they feel their families will be eliminated in see language. witness protection is an issue. the foreign minister gave a speech two days ago in the u.n. with all good intentions, i believe, and he says everything is hungy dori, but the ground situation is quite different. the north and east of sri lanka are highly huttallized, four civilians to one soldier.

why do you need so many soldiers there? sri lanka i go not at war. >> very interesting to talk to you. >> let's go back to the refugee crise in europe. hundreds have reached croatia just a day after border controls were imposed by hungary. we can go live to budapest and speak to a migration advocate, assisting refugees from the start of the crise. so we are speaking now on the day that hungary's just begun the criminalization, hasn't it, of the asylum seeking process. wove heard that at least one iraqi refugee has been charged and found guilty of the crime of trying to get into hungary illegally. >> yes. he has been barred from one year of hungary, which means he is barred drop the e.u. for one

year. one man was charged jewel we heard from the hungarian authorities. they've been fairly vociferous defending their position, but haven't heard much from hungarian people. how representative is the hungarian government of the way ordinary hungarians feel about the plight being endured by these people. >> i think hungary's pointing to two parts. the one part is against migrants by the government, but there are many people helping migrants. we have over 9,000 members in our facebook group and we have very, very many tough helpers who are giving food and water and information to the migrants

arriving to rungary, and we are just rae locating our resources to the border from budapest to serbia. >> there's refugees, those asylum seekers who have just got caught, because there must be some people who have just got caught within the borders of hungary itself. how will they be treated? >> yesterday, i went to a camp in hungary, it's an open camp and i have asked the director said camp how many migrants are now in the camps in hungary and told maybe 800, but i think even less, because all the people who are caught in hungary were sent to the austrian border, so i think there are no people caught in hungary and they could leave free to austria. >> thank you.

>> thousands of mostly ethnic makes are marching in support of the embattled prime minister in kuala lampur. the dignity uprising is in response to last month's protest demanding the prime minister resignation over a corruption scandal. some accuse the ethnic chinese minority of driving those demonstrations, but prominent malaysians took part. we have this from the pro government rally in cool almost power. >> there are reports of police firing water cannons at protestors near chinatown. this occurred after the protestors threw water bottles and stones at security officials because they were denied entry into the china town area. security has been extremely tight in this area, because they want to avoid any kind of clashes between the mostly

malaise protestors and chinese community. tens of thousands of people came out ostensibly to show support for the prime minister, who is facing a lot of controversial lately. he's been accused of syphoning money from a state investment fund and protests a few weeks ago actually called for his resignation. protestors today said they very much support the current government and they do believe that the prime minister continues to have a popular mandate. >> back to the united states and the republican front runner in the race for the sufficient presidency donald trump has vowed to fix veteran health care. he didn't give tail how he'd conduct an expansion in the armed forces. he was aboard to retired world war ii battle ship.

this is ahead of the second republican debate taking place later on wednesday. >> guatemala announced the two candidates for the presidential runoff in october. television comedian jimmy morales won the first round. he'll face the former first lady sandra torres. just before the vote, molina had to resign at president and arrested in a bribery scandal. >> u.s. technology company hewlett packard is cutting another 30,000 workers globally preparing to split into two companies later this year. the company recently announced 55,000 separate layoffs. h.p. was once the biggest computer company in the world, and is trying to cut costs and enter new markets to combat falling demand for its product. >> hushes are a constant threat to coastal communities around the world, but the science behind understanding them is still in many ways in its in

fancy. at the university of miami in florida, a new state-of-the-art simulator hopes to change all that. andy gallagher has more. >> at the university of miami, scientists have studied hurricanes for decades. the state is no strange tore deadly storms. researchers have a new tool that could change things. this tank is the world's largest wind-water hurricane simulator. in just minutes, it can generate powerful winds and raging waves. researchers say it's the ability to study the interaction between the sea and the storm that make it potentially revolutionary. >> we're going to be able to learn some things here to are definitely a leap forward. where we pushed the technology, we've gone well above what existed previously. >> it took a year for engineers to build the tank and researchers weren't sure what

results it would yield. the tank's ability to mimic not just the hurricane, but the stormy waters seems to be paying off. >> this simulator is now at full power and when it is, i can feel this entire tank moving and shaking around below my feet. what makes the simulator unique is that it can recreate storms so accurately and give scientists greater understanding with the greater goal saving lives. >> forecasting hurricanes has improved over the past 20 years, predicting storm intensity is still very difficult. warm waters are what fuel hurricanes, and it's hoped this new facility and its team will improve on vital forecasting in years to come. >> it is kind of your scientific dream come true in a way, in a phrase, because you're able to see these things that you really want to see, but you can't go in the field and do it. >> it's hoped that studies here will help improve building safety and lead to greater understanding of coastal erosion.

it's the ability to study a hurricane from the safety of a laboratory that could make a big difference. al jazeera, miami, florida. >> still to come on the program: >> one of the all time greats makes bold predictions ahead of the rugby world cup.

>> a troubling picture of ocean health has been revealed in a study of marine life.

ocean mammals, birds, reptiles and fish have been reduced on average by half in the last 40 years, with some fish populations declining by up to 75%. slashes, rays and sea turtles are among the most threatened species. researchers from the zoological society of london found steep declines in coral reefs, mangroves and sea grasses, home to fish species and make an important contribution to the world economy. the study shows that threats to the ocean put at risk an annual economic output of at least $2.5 trillion word wide. nearly 3 billion people rely on fish as a major source of protein. on top of that, rising sea temperatures are increasing acidity levels caused by carbon dioxide are making matters even worse. john from world wildlife fund international said the trend can be stopped.

>> one of the good things about oceans is they have a level of resilience and these marine populations, if we take the pressure or have shown us they can bounce back. we are releasing this report now because the two opportunities ahead of us, we have the sustainable development goal, discussions which are before the u.n. in the next few weeks and there, the united nations, the leaders of the word come together and they have an opportunity to build political will around ocean restoration, and urgently devote resources to what's required there. of course everyone is starting to focus on the conference of parties on the climate change negotiations in paris. we think there are two opportunities for world leaders, and communities and civil society to really come together with some substantive action. >> all right, it's time for the sports news now. here's farrah. >> thank you so much. five cities have officially been

named at applicants to host the 2024 paris olympics. los angeles are the only bidders from north america. the international committee are keen to restore the validity of the games. >> with 2020, we have changed the whole procedure for being candidate to host the olympic games. now we are inviting the cities to tell us how their vision for their cities and how the olympic games would fit best into this vision. >> paris had a failed bit for the 2012 games which went to london. the french capital has been host

twice before. rome, who last hosted in 1960 had staged the bid to host the 2020 games but pulled out because of budget concerns. hamburg has never hosted the games before. budapest hopes to join russia as the only eastern european country to land summer olympics. >> los angeles hope to land their third games after 1932 and 1984. l.a. was the united states second choice after boston pulled out at the last minute. the winner will be announced in september, 2017. >> we are joined by phil barker, an olympic historian. he joins me now live from london. who do you think from these five cities is a front runner? >> the front runners have to be los angeles, who have wanted to get the games back over since they staged them in 1984 and paris. don't discount rome, because their bid is led by one of the

ferrari grandees on the formula one team and ran the 1990 world cup. rome could well be, i think hamburg and budapest are very much the outsiders in this race. >> do you see any of these cities pulling out anytime soon? >> we did have a slow pull out for the 2022 winter olympics games after referenda, cities deciding not to go and proceed. hamburg looked the most fragile bid because they have an extensive no olympia campaign in the city that teal obviously have to turn around. the i.o.c. said we will only go where we are wanted. of the others, rome did pull out of the last race, but have got a renewed enthusiasm this time. >> the 2020 agenda has been

designed to make the bidding process easier. do you think it will make a difference? >> it could well make a difference. this is a slew of reforms introduced last december following extensive consultation with members of the public, of the olympic community, the sporting community to try and reduce the high speculation to reuse existing facilities. budapest were slated to host the 1920 olympics before the first world war. that didn't work out for them, and for them to come in as a relatively small city could be a very new and intriguing development as far as the olympic bid race is concerned. >> let's go back to the 2024. what do you think put off cities that were interested in bidding for 2024, like doha and baku.

>> toronto pulled out at the very last minute. we expected a bid from them. doha had the world cup in football to worry about in 2022, so perhaps that, they didn't want to have two targets at the same time. it's hard to fathom exactly why baku would turn down the chance. it's clearly on their long term agenda as it is for doha, but maybe they don't feel the time is right. maybe the people in baku perhaps fatigued after staging the inaugural european games and certainly doha with that world cup coming up, that is not going to be he said to stage. >> thank you for your time. >> tony parker put in a standout performance at champions as france booked their place in the semifinals on tuesday.

they crushed latvia. the san antonio spurs guard 18 points and six assists. france looking good to rowtain their crown. >> one nba star that can deliver his country is greece. greece going down 73-71. >> barcelona are favorites despite roma beating. barca coach said all the talk about this side becoming the first team to win back-to-back trophies is inspiring the players. >> that's no extra pressure at all. it's wonderful motivation to go on, the right motivation for this team, this club. we know it's quite difficult. it's something no team has ever

accomplished and we'll try to make it. it's no pressure at all for us, it's the opposite. >> eight games in total in the champions league wednesday. chelsea faces israeli, tel-aviv looking to overcome their previous poor domestic form. >> in major league basketball, the tampa bay rays beat the yankees on tuesday, rays shortstop nick franklin hit a two-run home run to lift tampa to a 6-3 win. the yankees are three games behind the toronto blue jays who lost 3-2 to atlanta. >> walking by world cup starts friday. it is believed some big j.p. sets could be on the cards. taking part in london earlier, believed that the likes of fiji who play england in the opener could cause shocks. so mow i can't starts their campaign against the u.s. an

sunday. >> everyone's talking about the usual suspects in terms of who's going to win the tournament, new zealand, ireland, wails. they forget about poll felicia. >> a team of five sailors traveled 13 days, departing from a russian port and after 3,240 nautical miles, arrived in the bering strait. that's all your sport for now. >> thank you very much. do stay with us here at al jazeera. we've got a lot more to come in just a couple of minutes.

>> i kept trying to make him not be a boy... it's not working. >> transgender children. >> i'd sit alone, i'd eat alone, i have no one to talk to. >> some dismiss it as a phase. >> we're trying to pigeon-hole him into "tom boy". >> but is it reallt a crisis? >> when your child wants to die... that's what changes parents. >> meet the families on a life changing journey. >> i finally get to blossom into the beautiful flower i am!

>> hungarian police fire tear gas at refugees gathered near the serbian border. hello, i'm martine dennis in doha. a scathing report for u.n. calling for international judges and lawyers to prosecute those accused of sri lanka's war crimes. israel's prime minister is expected to visit moscow to discuss the military presence in syria. >> i don't think anybody will be scared